Tag Archives: John S. Quarterman

Agricultural land bought by west coast investors

Investment firms owned by Bill Gates have bought thousands of acress of agricultural land in counties in or near WWALS watersheds in south Georgia and north Florida, all above the Floridan Aquifer, near the Alapaha, Alapahoochee, Withlacoochee, and Suwannee Rivers, as part of a nationwide buying spree of a quarter million acres.

Here’s a summary of what we’ve found thus far. Any more recent posts should be found through this search.

These purchases of hundreds and thousands of contiguous acres are all after Bill Gates announced in 2012 he was going to “fix” agriculture in conjunction with Monsanto and Syngenta.

And it’s not just Bill Gates. Continue reading →

EPA coal plant emission limits still in place during legal cost review

Justice Scalia never said the EPA emissions rule was struck down, rather the Supreme Court sent it back to a lower court to get a cost analysis from EPA. 300x305 Mercury, in Improving Air Quality in Georgia, by Georgia Power, 30 June 2015 Meanwhile, many of the emissions controls are already in place on coal plants (including Plant Scherer), other coal plants have closed or are closing, and investors are abandoning coal in droves. So what Scalia wants may or may not be impossible for EPA to deliver, but EPA actually already has helped sink dirty coal. Meanwhile, Georgia Power finally is helping the sun rise on Georgia. So the prognosis is good for less mercury in the Alapaha River.

Emily Atkin, ThinkProgress Climate, 29 June 2015, What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About The Supreme Court’s Mercury Pollution Ruling, Continue reading →

Supreme Court rules on cost against EPA coal plant emission limitations

The EPA should account for all costs before making a ruling on mercury or other coal plant emissions, according to a 5:4 majority of the Supreme Court. The dissenting minority points out not only are costs usually figured in during the follow-on process for specific limits, but that actual costs can’t even be computed without knowing those limits. So Coal Plant Scherer mercury in the Alapaha River can’t be limited without figuring all the costs first, says the SCOTUS majority, although EPA and the Court minority point to numerous well-known medical problems caused by mercury. Are profits for a few big utilities and coal companies more important than clean water and public health, especially now that there are cleaner, safer, faster-to-build, and less expensive renewable energy sources available in solar and wind power?

According to today’s SCOTUS ruling, Continue reading →

Burnt Church in Lakeland to Hotchkiss in Stockton –Chris Graham 2015-06-20

Alapaha River Water Trail Committee Chair Chris Graham went with a few friends down the middle section of this Blueway:

Which is roughly 12 river miles. It was amazing epic river trip. Continue reading →

First Withlacoochee River Water Trail Committee meeting tonight 2015-06-22

We just added another member to this committee, and we’re looking for more (see press release, for multiple committees, and for the WWALS board. If interested, please fill out the application form.

Withlacoochee River Water Trail Committee
Meeting Agenda
7:30 PM, Monday, 22 June 2015
by telephone
Contact Committee Chair Chris Mericle for details
mericle@gmail.com, 386-855-5096 cell, 386-938-5943 home

  1. Review Proposal that was accepted by the WWALS Executive Board for this new committee.
    Create a working document from the proposal: a blueprint for the water trail
  2. Discuss the water trail name:
    • Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail
    • or Withlacoochee River Water Trail
    • or something else?
  3. Review material on the WRWT web page (to be continued in further meetings)

-jsq

This sister earth now cries out to us –Pope Francis

Pope Francis makes a religious, ethical, humane, scientific, and practical case for stewardship of this earth and its waters, with moral and ethical bases for “the choices which determine our behaviour”. His case does not require any reader to be Catholic or Christian, as the Pope integrates his faith with the science of an integral ecology. You don’t have to agree with everything he wrote (I don’t) to agree with the gist of it, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

“all life is interrelated”

Tiber River, vatican.va

Pope Francis’ letter to the world is long but well worth reading in full, and these excerpts I hope will encourage everyone to do that.

ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME, 18 June 2015, Vatican City. Continue reading →

Suwannee River Basin watershed organizations and Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council

300x243 HUC 031102 Suwannee Basin, in Suwannee Region HUC, by USGS, for WWALS.net, 14 June 2015

Update 2015-06-22: SOS will remain focused on the Lower Suwannee.

Can’t tell the players without a card, and there’s a new player at Monday’s Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council 2015-06-15, in between south of Satilla Riverkeeper and WWALS Watershed Coalition: Save Our Suwannee.

Also, WWALS is now WWALS Watershed Coalition, a WATERKEEPER® Affiliate, conserving the Alapaha and Withlacoochee River basins, including the watersheds of all their tributaries.

In Florida, Continue reading →

Statenville to Sasser Landing with Turket Creek Waterfall -jsq @ WWALS 2015-02-15

It was a nice day with current on the Alapaha River from 300x180 Selfie Turket, in Statenville to Sasser Landing on the Alapaha River, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 15 February 2015 Statenville to Sasser Landing 15 February 2015, with a side trip up the Alapahoochee River to the famous Turket Creek Waterfall. This morning WWALS continues from Sasser Landing to Jennings Bluff, plus a walk up the Dead River to the sink where the Alapaha River goes underground. Continue reading →

WWALS becomes a Waterkeeper Affiliate

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WWALS Watershed Coalition becomes a Waterkeeper Affiliate to Patrol and Protect the Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers and all their tributaries.

WATERKEEPER(r) ALLIANCE logo Adel, (June 12, 2015) — The Waterkeeper Alliance Board of Directors approved WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. as a Waterkeeper Affiliate on June 4th, 2015. WWALS Watershed Coalition, a Waterkeeper Affiliate, will work to conserve our central south Georgia and north Florida watersheds by combining firsthand knowledge of the watersheds with an unwavering commitment to the rights of the community and to the rule of law.

“Waterkeeper Alliance is thrilled to have WWALS as the eyes, ears, and voice for this vital watershed and community,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Waterkeeper Alliance President. “Every Continue reading →

The Alapaha River Corridor: a high priority wildlife landscape feature

Interesting find by Heather in the State Wildlife Action Plan, July 31, 2015, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division, featuring the newly-scientifically-recognized Suwannee River alligator snapping turtle. Maybe we’ll see one on the WWALS outing this Sunday from Sasser Landing to Jennings Bluff, and you can preview some of the vegetation mentioned in Julie Bowland’s pictures.

Alapaha River Corridor

The Alapaha River is a nonalluvial (blackwater) river in the Gulf Coastal Plain of Georgia. The Alapaha River corridor includes significant upland habitats associated with sandhill environments. This system includes longleaf pine-scrub oak woodlands, old-growth dwarf pondcypress swamps, mesic hardwood bluffs, and depression ponds. High priority species associated with these habitats include striped newt, gopher frog, gopher tortoise, spotted turtle, eastern indigo snake, eastern diamondbacked rattlesnake, tiger salamander, silky camellia, and pondspice. The Alapaha River is inhabited by the Suwannee River alligator snapping turtle, a distinct, newly described species that is rarer in Georgia than the species found in other drainages. (Note: this conservation landscape spans the Southeastern Plains and Southern Coastal Plain.

Fortunately, the Alapaha River has no Continue reading →